Dreams of the Past
by thegirlinthewindow
Summary: There are times when people dream, not of what they hope for, but for what they miss. There are solemn days when people and neopets spend their days dreaming of the past. These dreams may be beautiful indeed; but rarely does one ever truly enjoy dreams of the past, for they often bring to remembrance a horrifying pain. Yet these can bring hope to the present. sortof onhiatus
1. Chapter 1

_There are times when people dream of things, not that they hope for, but things that they miss. There are solemn days when people and neopets spend their days dreaming of the past. These dreams may be beautiful indeed; but rarely does one ever truly enjoy dreams of the past, for they often bring to remembrance a pain that cannot be fixed._

Rain poured down on the cloaked figure. Little water puddles dripped around the feet of the person staring at the neohome. The neohome was a rather ordinary, if small, classic neohome, except for the strange ice that covered the windows and doors. As lightning flashed and thunder roared, a sigh escaped the figure; and strangely enough water dripped from the portion of the figure that should've been safest from the rain: her face. Sadly she turned and walked away, the droop of her shoulders giving her a defeated aura.

The lightning flashed again, and unseen from the window of the neohome, a blue Aisha watched the figure fade into the dreariness of the stormy day. The aisha sighed and curled into a dreary looking ball, dejected and alone. Slowly she drifted into a dream, a dream of days long past...

The blue aisha started awake from her nap as a squeal resounded in the tiny neohome.

"MAG! I got 6,000 neopoints today!"

Magda yawned and smiled sleepily at her owner,

"Really, E?" E grabbed her little aisha and hugged her tightly,

"Yes! If this keeps up I can buy your faerie paint brush in just a few months!"

"Oh, E, that would be great! But what about the lab map? Don't you have almost all the pieces?"

"Almost, but I'd rather get your paint brush first. You'll be so beautiful!"

Suddenly the Aisha started from her dream and looked around, "Is there anyone there?" Her call echoed around the abandoned house and her earstalks fell.

"Of course no one there's, silly, you're the only person in the house, and no one can get in or out."

Magda slumped back into her dejected ball, her fur falling about her in rumpled, greasy lumps. A low growl rose from her empty stomach as she slipped into the only release she had: sleep

"Hey, Mag, do you think E will really get the lab map?"

Magda smiled at the yellow Lupe speaking: her adopted brother who shared their owner's name, with the exception of the numbers in his name.

"Are you that eager to be zapped again?"

"Yes! Maybe my first zap will change my gender, too, like the last zap my last owner gave me!"

Mag covered her mouth with her hand and coughed delicately, actually hiding a grin behind her hand. She had never seen anyone as eager as her brother to be zapped, especially considering all the horror stories their cousins had told them about it.

Suddenly E skipped in, her ever-present grin lighting up the room with glee, as she sat on the floor pulling groceries into her lap to get their small supper ready.(She still hadn't gotten round to buying a table.) As suppers go, it was unique: a mishmash of all the things she had gathered during the day as she did her dailies. There were Cheops from the Lost Desert, omelettes from Tyrannia, beans from Mystery Island, and Mag's personal favorite, the Tchea Fruit bought with the Shop Wizard's erstwhile help.

Laughter and conversation flowed in the room. They were the little things, really, questions about the day, commonplace discussions that take place in almost every neohome. Things that one always takes for granted. Mag laughed and chattered with her owner and brother in her dreams. They were planning a new addition to their home: a chocolate room.

Suddenly thunder shook the earth, and the little Aisha murmured and moved around in her sleep. Her dream was changing

It was a time when E was older, several months after the Pound had closed for repairs. E was no longer as happy-go-lucky as she had once been, and there was a strange look that rested permanently upon her face, as though some great conundrum had been placed before her that she was constantly seeking the answer to. Day after day, Magda_Sea would watch as her owner would trudge out to Neopia Central and day after day, return to Mag and her brother with the same report:

"The pound is still closed."

When the pound had first closed, E had smiled,

"This will give us plenty of time to work on saving up for that last piece of the lab map, and hey, who knows, I might get enough neopoints saved up to start helping even more pounded pets!"

But the months had wore on; and pressures from beyond Neopia reached out against E. One day, Mag returned from a small shopping trip to find her owner sitting on the floor staring at the wall. Her brother, usually sitting in his chair, reading, was no where in sight. Something in the air chilled Magda,

"E?"

E turned around with a sigh, looking far different from the person Magda had always known.

"I've decided to leave Neopia. I've been wasting my time, I can't help others anymore. Things seem too young for me. I've placed your brother in the pound; if it ever opens I'm sure someone will adopt him."

E spoke as though trying to convince herself.

"As for you, I don't want you to go through the horrors of the pound, so I'm going to leave you here in the neohome. There's plenty of food for you. I'm sorry, Mag; but my life needs to go on from Neopets. G-good-bye, Mag."

Through her speech, E had turned and walked toward the door; then stopped,

"M-mag, you've been a good friend."

She opened the door as Magda wailed,

"NO! Don't leave me!"

But her cries fell on unheeding ears as the door closed behind Magda's former owner.

Magda burst upright and tears fell from her eyes as she recalled the rest of what had happened after that. A flash of incredible light and a horrendous noise had rocked the house; and when it was over, Magda_Sea was alone in a house with doors and windows covered by a strange impenetrable ice. She had spent most of her time working on a way to look outside her home, dreaming of the day her owner would return and shatter the ice, and once again love her as before.

Years passed, and that day never came.

Magda grew unkempt with no loving owner to care for her, and her food supply dwindled away to nothing. Soon her only distractions were watching the passersby and sleeping in dreams of the distant past.

Over the years, she began seeing a figure return every so often to stare at her home. Always the figure was cloaked, and never did the figure come on any but a dreary or dismal day. Magda watched the figure, but her curiosity had died long ago. ~

Out on the street, a cloaked girl kicked the dirty water into the gutters. Her tears blinded her even more than the clouded skies and the pouring rain.


	2. Chapter 2

It was raining again. As lightning flashed, Magda heard a strange whining noise and suddenly she saw a Uni, a fairie, and a Techo. The Uni shook her head,

"Poor thing-abandoned for over two years. It's alright, dear, come with me," she coaxed.

Magda backed away but did not have the strength to run. She could not understand how the trio had gotten into the neohome, but considering how long she had been in it, it could not be good.

The faerie sighed, "We won't hurt you."

Then she waved her hand and began muttering a spell as light emitted from her hands and engulfed the Aisha.

When the lightning flashed again, there was a glowing ball of light in the place of the Aisha. The Uni walked over and grabbed the orb.

"Let's leave this place," the Techo said disdainfully, looking at the abandoned house filled with the scent of broken dreams and abandoned hearts.

The three walked out and before the faerie teleported them away, she muttered another spell. This time light enveloped the classic neohome, and suddenly all that was left was a green lawn with a FOR SALE sign on it, as if the neohome that had stood there for six years had never existed. In that moment the last remnants that the girl E had ever existed in Neopia were removed forever, save for the glowing ball of light that the Uni held in her hands.

* * *

In another part of Neopia, a young woman stared at an advertisement in astonishment and a strange light of interest and hope beamed in her eyes. Excitedly she turned and ran to her neohome, where she dived through the portal that allowed her to cross between worlds.

"What just happened?" asked the bemused Lupe thief known as Tramp, who had watched his rescuer run to her room and disappear in a flash of light. He turned to stare at the purple Acara dressed all in purple, blue, black and red. She was gasping for breath.

"This is why _hah_ I hate _hah_ being _hah_ the active _hah_ pet."

"So," purred the sly voice of the other Lupe thief in the room, "Why did she run?"

"She _hah_ was just _hah _staring at an ad by TNT-something about caring for a fifth pet when she ran _hah_ all the way home."

"A fifth pet?" said a camouflage Wocky, who had just walked into the room carrying a sleeping baby Aisha with a death grip on a book.

"Isn't that against the human rules?"

The Acara had by that time sat down and started drinking a glass of water. She sighed and put it down.

"From what I could see before N ran off like Balthazar after a dark faerie, its some sort of special program meant to help the portal providers."

She shrugged, "Apparently if you fill out some sort of form and pay a fee with human money, you can care for an extra pet. It's strange, though, after N read the thing she just stared at it for ages and then she whispered 'Maggie' like she was going to cry and that's when she ran off."

A choking noise was heard from another corner of the kitchen where a Sketch Aisha stood drinking a cup of milk and she gasped,

"Maggie?"

Everyone in the kitchen turned and looked at her,

"Kat, do you know something? asked the Wocky gently.

"Yeah, Kat whispered, "it's what N told Rosie when N was adopting me. She said she hated seeing Aishas locked up at the pound because we reminded her of her first pet, Magda Sea."

Everyone gasped and exclamations of surprise came from everyone but the sleeping baby.

"Well, it makes sense." said the Acara after awhile. "I mean, we've known that although she's fairly clueless about a lot of the newer stuff around Neopia she's somewhat familiar with the older stuff, well for her anyway."

'Yesss, think about how mad sssshe getsss when ssshe talks about the conversssion. And how sssometimes ssshe-" the Hissi broke off as everyone jumped.

There was a round of apologies as everyone decided to just go ahead and turn the conversation into a family meeting-minus their eccentric owner. The yellow

Lupe put his paws to his lips and blew out a loud military style whistle. The baby in the Wocky's hands jumped awake, still keeping a death grip on his book, as other Neopets floated, flew, and walked in.

Quickly the pets outlined what was going on, and there was a lot of muttering amongst them when suddenly the bell that announced their owner was returning through the portal rang.

When she came through, everyone groaned. N was shrieking and jumping around as if she had just eaten two candy bars and three coffees.

"I DID IT! I DID IT! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"

Suddenly she froze and faced her pets who were stunned by the tears and happiness that were on her face. The tears started falling again as she rushed to her pets and hugged them. After awhile, she calmed down and said,

"Guys, there's something I need to tell you.

"Is it about M-magda Sea?" stuttered a Red Aisha.

N looked at Valrissaire, the red Aisha, in surprise,

"Yes." She sighed as she sat down on the couch and the pets sat in a semicircle around her. "I should've told you guys about her a long time ago. I was, well, I was introduced to Neopia by my sister, when I was very young. She was an avid caretaker at one time," N smiled reminiscently.

"She helped me fill out the paperwork and complete the process that let me come through the portal. She even helped me decide on creating my first pet. Magda_Sea was a blue Aisha, like Kat used to be."

N grinned and ruffled Kat's fur.

"To me, she was a very wonderful friend. In those days, like now, I was still aspiring for the lab map; but I was also trying to care for pets that had been abandoned, you know- foster a pet for a few days, make sure it was healed and fed and happy, then find them a good owner. A lot of the members of the guild I was in at the time did that until they got the lab map; and then they would start helping pets to be the color and species that could help them find a good home."

N laughed, "A lot of times we members of that guild would foster a pet and then decide to adopt them permanently, not so different from me now, huh?"

The pets laughed with her; however, N quickly became grave.

"But as I got older, I got a lot of flack from others who thought I was getting too old to come to Neopia."

There were cries of astonishment from the other pets.

"I didn't think that at first though. Maggie and I were having so much fun. I'd even found her a brother and sister. We really were happy."

N sighed.

"But I started getting really busy with stuff in the human world and I couldn't take as much time to visit Neopia as much."

N frowned-her eyes lost in a dream of the past that she could never forget.

"I started feeling like I was being pulled in two. And where I lived, only children came to Neopia, so I received a lot of scorn."

"But what about your thither?" lisped the baby Aisha, Darke Cloud. N smiled softly and scooped him into her lap and sighed.

"She had moved away, and I later learned that she only came to Neopia to place her pets in the Neolodge."

"Oh," the baby said sadly.

"Slowly I started preparing to leave Neopia. I found a good owner for my Peophin. He repainted her and gave her everything she needed and wanted. I still check to see how she's doing every now and again. But she's fine.

But then, I was trying to find a good owner to take in my Lupe. It was hard to find anyone who wanted him. He was basic colored and very badly named by most people's standards. I couldn't get any help from the guild because everyone in it had stopped coming to Neopia and then..."

N closed her eyes and hid her face while hugging her baby Aisha for awhile. She looked up.

"The pound closed. You all know me, one of the biggest reasons I come to Neopia is still the same. I want to help pets find good homes. Suddenly I couldn't help anyone and the last arguments that were keeping me in Neopia were breaking down. After several months, I..."

N sighed.

"I decided that it was time for me to quit coming to Neopia forever. Even though the pound was closed it was still possible to abandon pets to Dr. Death. So I took my Lupe and dropped him in the pound... but when I when I went to abandon Maggie I.. I couldn't do it. I knew the horrors of the pound. My fosters told me about it all the time. So I convinced myself that I couldn't leave her there. I stocked up the house so she would have enough to eat, then I went through all the proper protocols of freezing my portal access. I... left Neopia."

There was silence in the room for quite some time until it was finally broken by the timid Valrissaire.

"W-why did you come back?"

* * *

**AN: Well, I actually didn't intend for the story to be as long as it's apparently going to turn out; but I hope you enjoyed reading this and I welcome your opinions on how the story is going. Some of the neopets I introduced but didn't give their names, that's because when I introduced them I couldn't fit their names in without losing the flow.**


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